Month: May 2010

mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 11, Episode 6: Overwork pays off

Posted on by Beau Dure

Since we last saw our 14 confined middleweights, we’ve learned that the Tito Ortiz-Jenna Jameson domestic drama was a misunderstanding. But we still have no idea why Tito has been pulled from his fight against coaching foe Chuck Liddell.

We begin with a debate about the intensity of Tito’s practices. Kyacey Uscola think they’re being overtrained, and he appeals to his experience. Others disagree.

Tito calls a team meeting, which Uscola rightly recognizes as a bus set to roll over him. He tries to make his point, but he obviously has a choice of going to the mat over the issue or letting it go. He chooses the latter. Veteran experience again. He already lost his fight, so his only hope of getting back in through the new “wild card” is to play nice.

We have four remaining fighters for the first round, and we know very little about the two on Chuck’s team aside from their facial hair. Joe “Chris “Jesus” Ferguson” Henle stood out in the promos but hasn’t made a peep since. Same with Court McGee.

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mind games, mma, soccer

Midweek Myriad:

Posted on by Beau Dure

Free-lance assignments, household emergencies and being yelled at by a couple of Red Bulls fans have taken up much of my time this week, but there’s still plenty to round up while I enjoy my first home HD soccer viewing. (NOW I can’t wait for the World Cup.)

– MLS: Four midweek games tonight, with D.C. United aiming to end its winless streak on ESPN2 vs. Kansas City.

– U.S. Open Cup: The 2010 tournament will include a curious California play-in game for an extra amateur berth. (TheCup.us)

– EPL: Tottenham Hotspur clinched a Champions League berth for next season with a 1-0 win at Manchester City. Could they even take third ahead of Arsenal?

– La Liga: Barcelona took an easy win over Tenerife yesterday; Real Madrid tries to keep pace and remain one point back later today against Mallorca.

– Coppa Italia: Inter 1, Roma 0 in today’s final, with lots of misbehavior. With these two teams still fighting for the league title, that might not cool down any time soon.

– Copa Libertadores: Chivas (the original one) are in the Copa Libertadores quarterfinals, along with (barely) Brazil’s Sao Paulo. (Soccernet)

– UFC: Dropkick Murphys fans, mourn — Forrest Griffin is off the UFC 114 card. Instead, Jason Brilz will face Antonio Rogerio “Little Nog” Nogueira.

Also in UFC — the usual recap of The Ultimate Fighter will be on schedule tonight a little after 11 p.m. ET.

– Bellator: Thursday’s show has the first semifinals of the season — lightweights Roger Huerta-Pat Curran and Carey Vanier-Toby Imada. Also, lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez fights a “super fight” (keeping him active before he defends title against tourney winner) against UFC vet Josh Neer.

– Chess: Veselin Topalov outlasted Vishy Anand in game 8 yesterday. World championship all square with four games left. (Susan Polgar blog)

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soccer

MLS Week 6: How long can Red Bulls’ surge last before crash?

Posted on by Beau Dure

New York Red BullsThe New York Red Bulls needed just six games to match their win total (five) from last season. They’re on pace to finish 25-5-0 (75 points).

That’s not going to happen, of course. But what’s the upper limit for this team? Are they that good? Just on a hot streak? Just lucky?

It’s not that the Red Bulls were drastically overhauled. Ten of the 18 players who have seen playing time this year played last year, and a few more have been out of action for one reason or another. The newcomers are solid but not spectacular.

“We had 7 of the 11 players from last season in the first lineup,” new coach Hans Backe said in a small, candid postgame press conference Saturday in RFK Stadium’s tunnels after the Red Bulls beat D.C. United 2-0. “So something good has happened during the preseason. A key factor was in the preseason we went to Spain and started winning friendlies.”

Was fellow New York sportsman Yogi Berra right? Is 90 percent of it half mental?

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cycling, mind games, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Monday Myriad: Twenty20 just not cricket; injury-free Giro goal

Posted on by Beau Dure

A little late and short this week due to free-lance deadlines and a nervous trip to the auto dealer’s service department. (It lived.)

Also, these are going to be more Oly/international/MMA and less soccer because I’m already rounding up soccer elsewhere. As are other people.

Starting this week, though, with a complaint about:

CRICKET

Twenty20 cricket already takes a long, complicated game and makes it a short, extremely complicated game. But then when you have a little rain, it’s like racing to solve a Rubik’s Cube.

That’s one way of describing the way West Indies beat England 60-191 in the World Twenty20 tournament. (Cricinfo)

That leaves England needing a win over Ireland, one of the outsiders in a sport that accords “test status” to a small group of countries, to advance to the “Super Eight.”

Afghanistan didn’t pull off some sort of miracle on grass in its opener, but Noor Ali helped the team post a respectable score. (Guardian)

SOCCER

MLS: Full recap coming tomorrow. For now, read DuNord’s recap and be sure to follow the link to the story on RSL’s Andy Williams, whose wife is cancer-free but has been hospitalized a couple of times with infections, nearly causing Williams to miss a game.

WPS: Heard the phrase “league of parity” a few times after Saturday’s Freedom game. Atlanta is falling off the pace at the bottom of the league but has not yet played at home — the Beat will open their soccer-specific stadium (shared with Kennesaw State University) Sunday against Sky Blue. Looks great.

Europe: DuNord’s recap also tracks the title battles (Chelsea, Bayern set to clinch in the finales this weekend). Hannover (Steve Cherundolo) won to climb out of the Bundesliga relegation zone.

Mexico: Pachuca (Jose Francisco Torres) takes a 1-0 lead into the second leg as they try to upset top seed Monterrey in the quarterfinals.

South America: As long as we’re scanning roundups, you can’t beat this Copa Libertadores roundup at BigSoccer.

TV midweek (times ET):

  • Tuesday: Barcelona-Tenerife, 2 p.m., GolTV – Barca lead by one point in Spain with three games to play.
  • Tues/Wed/Thurs: Copa Libertadores round of 16, second legs, Fox Sports Espanol
  • Wednesday: Roma-Inter Milan, 2:45 p.m., GolTV –
  • Wednesday: Tottenham-Manchester City, 3 p.m., ESPN2 – Teams tied for fourth Champions League spot with two to play.
  • Wednesday: D.C. United-Kansas City, 7 p.m., ESPN2 – One of four midweek MLS games.

CYCLING

  • Tour of the Gila: Levi Leipheimer is the winner, with a lot of help from Lance Armstrong. Side note in the results: Floyd Landis finished ahead of Armstrong. (Velo News)
  • Tour de Romandie: Alejandro Valverde made up a one-second gap in the overall standings on the final stage for the victory. (Velo News)
  • Mountain bike World Cup: Willow Koerver finished second over the weekend to move up to first in the season standings.
  • Looking ahead: The Giro d’Italia starts Saturday. U.S. rider Christian Vande Velde is blunt about his goals: “Ideally, not break seven bones in my body.” Gotta dream big. (Velo News)

OLYMPIC/COLLEGE SPORTS

  • Track and field: Chris Solinsky is a pretty good 5,000-meter runner. He decided to dabble in the 10,000, running it for the first time at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford. The result: He’s the first non-African to break 27 minutes. (IAAF)
  • Gymnastics: Dominant run for the U.S. teams at the Pacific Rim Championships in Melbourne, winning men’s and women’s team titles and 27 medals. Rebecca Bross won the women’s all-around.
  • Beach volleyball: No upset on the men’s side at the AVP’s Santa Barbara stop, with Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers winning. The women’s bracket was a little less predictable — Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson-Jordan won for the first time in two years. Their last win was in this event.
  • Wrestling: Tervel Diagnev and Justin Ruiz won golds at the Pan American Championships, where Cuba won six of seven men’s freestyle classes.
  • Judo: 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Ronda Rousey, who may one day make an MMA promoter’s day, returned for her first major competition since Beijing and won her sixth U.S. title.

TENNIS

  • ATP Rome: Rafael Nadal is back in winning form on clay, beating David Ferrer in the final.
  • WTA Stuttgart: All hail Justine Henin, showing good form on clay in her comeback.
  • Roundup: Joe Fleming is back at the helm of USA TODAY’s Weekly Net Post, where you’ll read more about the Bryan brothers‘ 60th career title and yet another Borg-McEnroe epic. When their legs give out, those guys will be playing epic matches in table tennis. Or on a Wii.

ELSEWHERE

  • Boxing: Floyd Mayweather zzzzzzzz battered in second round but zzzzzzzzzz won every other round zzzzzzzzzz to beat Shane Mosley. Talk immediately turned to when he might really fight Manny Pacquiao.
  • Chess: While I was fretting over my car, world chess challenger Veselin Topalov played a really aggressive opening with the black pieces to try to force the action against Vishy Anand. The champion couldn’t come up with a win but held on for a draw to maintain a one-point lead at 4-3 through seven games of the 12-game match. (Susan Polgar blog)
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soccer

WPS: Bompastor goes mindless; Solo reviews Dave Matthews

Posted on by Beau Dure

In terms of lead-ins for the Washington Freedom, D.C. United’s loss in the ancient broiler known as RFK Stadium wasn’t exactly a new episode of Seinfeld. Fortunately, the Freedom and St. Louis Athletica turned around with a game that entertained the few thousand who remained.

“The fans that stayed over were loud,” Washington’s Abby Wambach said. “I felt we had a good fan base behind us.”

“I think they enjoyed the game,” Washington defender midfielder Sonia Bompastor said. “It was a great game with a lot of intensity. We scored three goals, and both teams played well with a lot of heart.”

Bompastor moved up from left back to left midfield and responded with a 19th-minute blast for the Freedom’s first goal.

“To be honest, I don’t like too much to play left back,” Bompastor said. “It’s not my favorite position. I know some games we need me to be left back, but I prefer to be midfield. I’m more free, and I don’t have to think.”

Wait … don’t have to think?!

“When you are playing midfield, you just have to run,” Bompastor said. “You have to think, but I know how to do because I was midfield in France.”

Freedom coach Jim Gabarra wasn’t planning to shut down the French star’s brain. He had tactical reasons for the switch.

“We needed to get her more attacking but also get Becky (Sauerbrunn) on the back line. She brings a lot of calm and defensive ability. It helps (rookie defender) Nikki Marshall out, having a more defensive player next to her that’s going to talk to her.”

Both teams warmed up quickly to keep the crowd from getting too restless while many of RFK’s concession stands shut down. St. Louis’ Shannon Boxx didn’t mind.

“Preparation’s different wherever you go. I think it’s great that they did the doubleheader. RFK Stadium’s a great place to play.”

St. Louis keeper Hope Solo had mixed feelings about RFK: “It’s a great field, beautiful stadium, but I enjoy playing in smaller, intimate soccer-specific stadiums. But this is awesome – you can’t complain about it.”

After winning gold in Beijing, Solo told me she was looking forward to getting back and seeing Dave Matthews Band. During the Olympics, DMB saxophonist LeRoi Moore passed away from complications resulting from an ATV accident.

How has the band been since then?

“I love their new album, that’s for sure, and I can’t wait for them to come to St. Louis,” Solo said. “They played with so much passion after they lost LeRoi. Some of their best shows were live after that.”

Final note from RFK: Briana Scurry, injured in her lone appearance for the Freedom this year, doesn’t seem to be holding a grudge over the 2007 World Cup controversy. She came over and gave Solo a friendly hug after the game.

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